UK health minister: No second spike in cyber attacks is 'encouraging'

A GLOBAL cyber attack that has struck computers across Europe and Asia is believed to have infected its first Australian business, the federal government says.

"And also existing known infections can spread, we can't say what scale the new cases will occur at but it's likely there will be some".

NHS England has said there is a "complex emerging picture" about the impact of the attack.

"They have been working I know through the night nearly to make sure patches are in place to make sure that hopefully the NHS services can get back to normal", he told BBC radio.

"The company clarifies that its networks and systems were not affected, thank God, and further that what was shown in the media relates to some personal devices which specialised technical teams will address", Saudi Arabia's biggest telecoms operator said in a statement on Sunday.

A spokesman for the trust said: "Barts Health staff have been working tirelessly over the weekend, using tried and tested processes to keep patients safe and well cared for. You're only safe if you patch as soon as possible", he tweeted.

Wainwright has acknowledged that Europol is actively collaborating with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and other global law enforcement agencies as they attempt to track down the persons or groups responsible for the attack. Ambulances were diverted until Sunday afternoon and it was closed for stroke emergencies, while the Barts Heart Centre, part of St Bartholomew's Hospital, was unable to accept heart attack patients for a day.

Hospital chiefs have said that the Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust remains open following the ongoing problems being experienced by organisations across the country.

"Most have found ways of working around this but seven, including Barts in London, have asked for extra support".

ATM machines are seen as being vulnerable since nearly all of them run on Windows software.

Brad Smith, Microsoft's president and chief legal officer, said yesterday in a blog post that his company, its customers and the government all share the blame, the report said. They were installing software to fix the problems.

The apparent chink in the NHS's defences led to criticism of the Government and NHS bosses, with the Liberal Democrats demanding an inquiry takes place.

"But as a whole it is worrying, there's nothing good about it, it is a source of concern".

An investigation is under way to identify the cause of the attack and ministers are to convene an extraordinary meeting of the National Cyber Resilience leaders' board on Tuesday to review the response to the breach.

A British cyber whizz was hailed an "accidental hero" after he registered a domain name that unexpectedly stopped the spread of the virus.

Despite the accidental discovery of a so-called kill switch for WannaCry on Saturday, the nature of ransomware has meant it has been hard to stop it definitively.